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With an easy 40km day ahead of us, we had a bit of lie-in, and set off rather late. We hoped to be at the park in a couple of hours, and perhaps do a bit of light trekking before sun-down.
Little did we know that between us and the park stood what the locals refer to as ‘the mountain’. Well at 300m it was only a little ‘bump’ compared to the Alps or the Greek mountains! Nevertheless it was VERY steep – ascending 200m in the space of about 800m, and pushing the only option to climb it. Also try doing it in the heat of the day in 37C, with no wind to help cool you down, and no water left in our bottles… Despite being seasoned cyclists we must admit we were caught completely unprepared!!
Two and a half hours of very painful pushing and lots of sweating later, we were at the top, almost delirious with heat exhaustion and fatigue. Sedef struggled more than Nic and he had to help her with her bike the last 200m or so. Thankfully it was all downhill from the top to the national park where we got some food and drinks!!
The Khao Sok park is considered one of the best protected sites in Thailand, with several thousand square kilometres of tropical jungle, and a massive man-made lake in the middle of it. It is home to a wide variety protected species of animals and insects. Accommodation is plentiful, treehuts and wood cabins, all in tune with the nature surrounding them.
The next day (now recovered from the climb) we went for a 12 km ‘walk’ along one of the ‘well-known’ nature trails that takes in several waterfalls and hidden lagoons. However, the well known trail turned out to be more of a jungle assault course! The trail was rather overgrown in parts – we had to push our way over fallen trees and roots that reached up from the floor, had to wade across several streams and walk along very narrow paths with 50-100m drops on one side to the river below. Definitely needed 4×4 feet – we felt rather sorry for some poor Aussie girls who had decided to attempt it in flip-flops! Nic got two leeches on his shoe – thankfully we caught them just in time before they made their way up to his ankle!! Had they made it to his flesh he would have had to walk back all the way back with his new ‘friends’ – since leeches can only be removed with salt or a lighter (which we didn’t have). Though we didn’t see any big animals, we saw lots of insect life, spiders (our favourites). There were very few people there (wisely so!), we felt all alone in the jungle most of the time with only strange jungle noises to keep us company. Several times we were glad we had taken our GPS with us – it would have been so easy to come off the trail by mistake and get disorientated and lost in the thick of the jungle.
With such an awesome experience as this, we decided that we had to see more. So the next day we signed up for a guided tour to a part of the park that you are only permitted to enter with an official guide. Much of the rest of the park is completely off-limits to anyone, even the locals, to ensure the ecosystem is not disturbed.
The tour would take us on a longtail boat ride across the huge man-made lake, followed by lunch on a floating rafts-house on the lake. Afterwards we would do some trekking and explore a local cave, before returning back in the evening. Sounds simple?! Well we were up for anything and good job too. The day turned out to be one of our most adventurous yet – and we had received little warning of what to expect!!
We started sedately floating on the mirror-like still lake, admiring the steep limestone cliffs rising sharply out of the water. Since the lake was formed by building a dam to flood a valley, there were still remnants of dead trees protruding out of the water like outstretched skeletal hands (Nic’s expression). The raftshouse was set in a very lovely spot, on a crystal green pool. There was a restaurant there and several reed huts that you could stay in overnight. Whilst lunch was being prepared, Sedef went for a swim (in her clothes!) then we hired a canoe to paddle around the lake. After going around in circles for 10 minutes and having made complete fools of ourselves, we discovered that it was simpler with Sedef paddling and doing the hard work, and Nic using his oar as a tiller in the back, with his feet up! :p
Once fed, we set off on the jungle trail to the cave. It was a much gentler 3km walk than the previous day, though we had to wade across several streams and rivers, sometimes up to our waist. At the end of the trail we arrived at a massive cave, and realised there was a river running through it!! And of course, being a cave, there were no lights inside, and it was pitch black! Thankfully, having been in a few caves before, we had brought our torches with us.
So off we went following our guide, scrambling over rocks and wading through knee high waters. The cave was home to hundreds of bats, HUGE spiders (which got Nic quivering), catfish swimming in the river, frogs, locusts, crabs, and god knows what else – we didn’t really want to know much!! We followed the river through the cave system for about an hour, admiring the stalactites and stalagmites. Then we got to the hairy bit. The tunnel became quite narrow and the river got quite deep. We had to go through it single-file, crouching low in parts, and swim-wading in others holding to ropes to guide us. Then came the really tricky part – a steep narrow descent down a small waterfall into a deep narrow pool at the bottom which was too deep for walking. Sedef went first, swimming through in the ice cold water. Nic, a nervous swimmer at the best of times, and carrying our rucksack, tried to swim at first then decided to climb-crawl across with his feet on both sides of the chasm, until the pool got shallow enough to stand. We felt rather sorry for one Swiss guy who wasn’t warned and had to carry his 6 year old daughter on his back throughout the whole cave!! We also saw other tourists who hadn’t been forewarned, and dressed in complete safari gear which they didn’t want to get wet.
It was a truly exhilarating experience. It was awesome.
